Junior Annie Deckelbaum is a lacrosse player and has contributed to the varsity team since she was a sophomore. As a midfielder, she displays stick skills and speed on the field. Deckelbaum scored many of the team’s goals and was at the top in assists. The team hopes to continue building on its successes in the future.

“I love playing lacrosse because it’s fun [and] it gives me a way to meet new people and create friendships and memories,” Deckelbaum said.

Since she began playing for the Longhorns, Deckelbaum learned to maneuver around defenses and steal the ball from opposing players. Deckelbaum is well-loved by her teammates and plays a huge part in team chemistry.

“Annie is super fun to play with because she is not only good at lacrosse but super sweet and well-understanding,” teammate and junior Ella Wheeler said.

Junior Maggie Leahy is a midfielder for the girls’ varsity soccer team. To hone her skills, Leahy works on passing, kicking and scoring the ball. So far this season, Leahy is one of the top scorers on the team with four assists and eight goals. 

“I love playing soccer because it’s something that I can do where there is no stress and I can just have fun,” Leahy said.

Although the girls soccer program has struggled in the past couple of years with winning, this season they are off to a 13-4 start and will look to continue adding to the wins. To become a stronger team, the girls are focusing on their teamwork.

“In soccer, you can’t win games by yourself, and if our team works together and plays as a team, we will have lots of fun and success,” Leahy said.

Junior Leyton Usry is a wide receiver for the varsity football team. The Longhorns had a winning record of 5-4 this past season. Usry led the Longhorns in receiving yards with 952 yards, receiving 12 touchdowns and 82 receptions. This was Usry’s first year playing football. 

“I put [in] a ton of work in the offseason so I could catch up to other guys and get [better]. I would train almost every day and go to the field with [quarterback and junior Brett Ottensmeyer] to get chemistry with him and prove myself as someone who could contribute to winning,” Usry said.

Usry ended the season by breaking the all-time West record for catches in a single game, touchdowns in a season, receptions in a season and receiving yards in a season. These statistics suggest that Usry had the best West receiver season of all time and Usry looks to build on that in his 2025-2026 school year.

“I am very excited for this season because it gives us another opportunity to show what we can do [to] try and get as many wins as possible,” Usry said.

Junior Wade Patten is a part of the varsity track and cross country teams. Patten was a state qualifier during the cross-country season. In track, Patten runs the one-mile, two-mile and 800-meter races. His fastest times include two minutes and six seconds for the 800-meter, nine minutes and 55 seconds for the two-mile and a four-minute and 36-second mile time.

“I enjoy track because it’s a great way to push myself to my limits and compete as a team to do the best we possibly can in meets,” Patten said.

At track meets, points are calculated by race for placement to see who had the best race overall at the end. Patten focuses on improving his speed at practice to get faster and run for longer.

“Every day [at] track is different because we run so many different events. We have to practice in many different ways, making me and everyone else better,” Patten said.

This year was freshman Greyson Smith’s first year playing varsity basketball. Smith started every game this season and averaged 8.3 points per game, scoring 215 points this season. He also made 50.8% of all of the shots he attempted all season. He ended the season as second on the team in scoring out of 15 players and was behind senior Ty Keuhl.

“At the start of the year, I was finding out how to play with people that I had never played with before, but towards the end, we found our stride as a team and me as a player myself,” Smith said.

Although the basketball team had a down year record-wise, Smith helped, getting them eight wins, including a go-ahead score with two seconds left against Rockwood Summit on Feb. 25.

“Hitting the shot versus Summit was awesome because it let us take the lead in a very tight game, and it allowed us to get a great road win,” Smith said.

Junior Katie Byergo has been a part of the girls varsity volleyball team since she was a freshman. Standing at 6 feet 5 inches, Byergo frequently works on blocking opponents’ spikes and hitting the ball with power. Byergo is committed to playing Division 1 volleyball at Iowa State University in 2027. 

“These last couple of seasons have been really fun because we won a lot of games, and I felt myself becoming an even better player,” said Byergo

With a lot of new players on the team, Byergo plays right side attack and her main role is to hit the ball hard and try and deflect other teams’ hits.

“Next season will be a lot of fun because there will be a ton of new people on the team and we can figure out how good we possibly can be,” Byergo said.